Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a 2D adventure that throws you into the boots of an alien whose job it is to cure godly entity and thus save the entire galaxy. You’re not given much direction in the form of instructions, which causes a few headaches. Combine this with the vast and often empty alien environments and you have yourself a distinct feeling of loneliness in Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. The puzzles you’ll come across (and there are plenty) are very challenging and will hook you pretty quickly by providing gamers with a sense of accomplishment with each successful solution. Most puzzles will require a few tries that result in failure, but you’re never left with the feeling of displeasure or frustration. There will be a little aggravation however, because of the controls which are at times a little unresponsive. This could also be said for the visual responses on screen.
Unlike most well-spun tales in space, there is nothing to read. Every bit of the story is conveyed through the gameplay and some well placed cut-scenes. This makes the story a little vague, but never leaves you too confused to keep going on. Exploring the huge open map, you'll come across various items that help you travel deeper and gain access previously unavailable locations. You’ll do this while traveling in a pretty nice little flying saucer capable of cruising in any direction within the confines your view. Exploration is the name of the game here which leads to the puzzle solving. Without giving too much away, both go hand in hand and work together quite well to enable your alien to unravel everything that’s going on. The aforementioned puzzles can be annoying at times though because the game seems to intentionally push you in the wrong the direction from the actual solution. It feels like an intentional design flaw used to lengthen game time artificially.
One of the most surprising parts of Shadow Planet is the multiplayer, which was somewhat left as a surprise until I booted the game up. You would expect the multiplayer component to be a shallow add-on tacked onto the solid single-player as an afterthought, but it’s not. One to four players can tackle things locally or online on Xbox LIVE. Each player’s ship has a glowing Lantern that they are tasked with protecting from the dark maw. Players work together to traverse randomly-generated mazes and puzzles while working to get the lanterns through the darkness. The gameplay is a nice change of pace and surprisingly addictive.
The graphics are the star of the show here despite a few response issues in puzzles. Visual masterpieces like LIMBO and Shadow Complex have a new friend in the “great looking XBLA” club. You can tell right away that a lot of thought and work went into each environment. Even the cut-scenes look like they’ve gotten more polish than some full-release retail games. I wouldn’t say that everyone will be blown away by the visuals in Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, but the majority will be more than pleased with the colorful fantasy displayed on screen. The music and sounds in ITSP also give off the vibe that a lot of time was put into each section with spot-on music that’s queued up at just the right moment to signify an event or important situation. I won’t go as far as to say that Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a feast for the eyes and ears, but you’ll be more than pleased with what is presented.
In all, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a solid title that’s more than worthy of being included in the Summer of Arcade promotion and worth a purchase in a time when most gamers have to be a little careful of what they buy to save money. The huge levels are sometimes confusing, but always entertaining. There’s no doubt that you’ll get some value out of this one too thanks to the hours of gameplay provided by solving puzzles and the surprisingly addictive multiplayer component. The gameplay is complimented very well by some excellent visuals that come off as inspired and original. The soundtrack does a superb job of supporting the action on screen as well. If you’re on the fence about picking up this XBLA title, think no longer and go download it now. You’ll be glad you did.
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Graphics |
9.0 |
Original and inspired graphics will hook your eyes right away. |
|
Audio |
8.5 |
The music and sound effects are setup perfectly to compliment the art. |
|
Single Player |
9.5 |
A little more direction would have been nice, but the challenge is perfect. |
|
Multiplayer |
8.0 |
You'll end up playing the multiplayer lanterns for quite a while. |
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Replay |
8.5 |
Worth more than the price of admission because you'll keep playing ITSP. |
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Overall |
9.0 |
Summer of Arcade has the best games and ITSP is a prime example. |
